Just about every activity requires apparel, and sometimes very specific apparel, such as helmets and pads for skateboarders, in addition to standard shirts, shoes, pants, shorts, socks or any coverage that has potential for impact. Surfers often wear wetsuits. Skiers and snowboarders often wear helmets, while a number of snowboarders wear additional protection such as knee pads and wrist guards. As used herein, the term “apparel” refers not only to clothing, headgear or footwear, but also to accessories that can be worn by a person separately or with such clothing, headgear or footwear or legwear. Additionally, “apparel” refers to any covering for areas of impact on equipment or devices.
However, common impact reduction apparel, coverings or accessories are typically very bulky, cumbersome, and stand out too much for the tastes of their wearer. Thus, many people in certain activities will opt to not use any impact resistant products, which, while appearing more fashionable, put them at increased risk of injury from an impact while undergoing the activity. For example, skateboarders often eschew helmets in favor of trendy hats such as ball caps or trucker's hats. These hats provide nearly zero impact reduction.
For equipment applications, despite precautions and robust designs, the risk of an accidental impact is apparent and can be detrimental to the equipment's proper function.
Accordingly, what is needed is impact reduction apparel that can be worn with other apparel, placed over sensitive equipment, and have a low profile or be hidden altogether. Further, such impact reduction apparel can provide a platform for features that were previously impossible or very difficult to implement with conventional apparel.